A sample analyzer for analyzing blood or urine such as a blood cell counting device, a blood coagulation measurement device, an immune analyzer, a biochemical analyzer, a urine analyzer, and the like is known.
In a facility such as hospitals, test centers, and the like where a plurality of the same type of sample analyzers are installed, the sample analyzer to be used is switched every day or every week, for example, and when using some of the plurality of installed sample analyzers, the other sample analyzers are not used. In this case, the sample analyzers that are not used are installed for backup, and thus are in a shutdown state. When abnormality occurs in the sample analyzer being used or when there are a large number of samples and a great amount time is required to complete the analysis of all the samples with the sample analyzers being used, the sample analyzer for backup is activated and used for sample analysis.
For example, in the sample analyzer disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-32493, when abnormality occurs in the sample analyzer, the occurrence of abnormality is displayed on a screen of the sample analyzer to notify the user. The user manually activates the backup sample analyzer when confirming the occurrence of abnormality of the sample analyzer or when determining that the sample analysis takes time with only the operating sample analyzer.
When switching the sample analyzer to be used by time, the operator shuts down the sample analyzer being used by hand and activates the sample analyzer that was not being used when a switching time is reached.
However, the operator needs to move to the place where the backup sample analyzer is installed to perform the activating operation in order to activate the backup sample analyzer. The backup sample analyzer may not be installed near the sample analyzer being used, in which case the backup sample analyzer cannot be efficiently activated and the processing may stagnate during such time. If the operator neither notice the abnormality of the device nor notice that a great number of samples is registered beyond the processing performance of the analyzer, the backup sample analyzer may not be activated for a long period of time and the sample processing may stagnate.
When switching the sample analyzer to use by time as well, the operator cannot efficiently carry out the switching operation if the sample analyzer to be used next is not installed near the sample analyzer being used.